Anjar, the Umayyad city in the heart of Lebanon

24
June 19, 2016
Travel
w w w. t h e a r a b w e e k l y. c o m
Agenda
Amman:
Through June 30th
Amman is welcoming visitors
from all over the world to celebrate traditional Arab culture
at the Citadel Nights Festival.
As the city comes to life each
night during Ramadan, guests
enjoy traditional Arab dishes,
authentic souks and classical
Arab music.
Marrakech:
Through June 30th
One of the oldest festivals in
Morocco, the Marrakech Festival of Popular Arts and Folklore
showcases Moroccan traditional music, dance and costumes.
Visitors are invited to attend
concerts, exhibitions and street
troupe performances.
Tunis:
Through July 2nd
The Festival of the Medina of
Tunis takes place at the Tunis
Convention Centre (Palais des
Congrès) and the more traditional setting of Dar Lasram.
The event includes a number of
cultural events, including presentations by Salatine al-Tarab
from Syria and the Afincao
band from Cuba. Tunisian singers Lotfi Bouchnak and Sofia
Sadek are to perform. More
than a dozen artistic performances will take place in the
streets of the Old Medina and
downtown Tunis.
The ruins of the ancient Umayyad city of Anjar in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley.
Anjar, the
Umayyad city
in the heart
of Lebanon
Daniele Khayat
Anjar
S
ituated in the middle of
Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa
valley, the breadbasket of
the Roman empire in the
Levant, the ancient city of
Anjar bears outstanding witness to
the Umayyad civilisation.
With its archaeological sites,
green fields, restaurants and hotels
along the riverside, Anjar is a favourite destination for tourists and
residents alike, competing with its
larger neighbour, Zahle, which is
dubbed the “bride of the Bekaa”.
Founded during the Umayyad
period under Caliph Walid ibn Abd
Al-Malik, Anjar is a unique example
of eighth-century town planning
and an inland commercial centre at
the crossroads between Beirut and
Damascus.
The archaeological site discovered in the 1940s includes a fortified ancient city surrounded by a
370-metre wall flanked by 40 towers. A north-south axis and a lesser
east-west axis, above the main collectors for sewers, divide the city
into equal quadrants.
In addition to its
archaeological site,
the modern city of
Anjar, is famous for
its fruit groves and
sweet water ponds.
Public and private buildings are
laid out according to a strict plan.
The great palace of the caliph and
the mosque in the south-east quarter occupy the highest part of the
site, while the small palaces (harems) and the baths are in the northeast quarter to facilitate the evacuation of waste. Secondary functions
and living quarters are distributed
in the north-west and south-west
quadrants.
Like Lebanon’s tourist sites, An-
jar was adversely affected by the
war in Syria. At the entrance of the
ancient city a number of guides
wait for visitors, who have become
rare after the closure of the inland
road through Syria that Arab Gulf
tourists used to travel to Lebanon
by car.
“Anjar was on the itinerary of organised package tours for foreign
tourists, which also comprised Syria and Jordan. Syria was not only a
connecting place between Lebanon
and Jordan but a favourite destination. When it was no longer available because of the war, Lebanon
also lost this category of tourists,”
said one of the guides who identified himself as Peter.
“On top of that, we lost Arab
visitors, including the Syrians, Jordanians and the Gulf families who
preferred the less costly travel by
road via Syria. Unstable security
in Lebanon also deprived us of the
visitors who could afford air travel,”
the guide added.
There is no official figure about
the number of visitors to Anjar but
the ruins are popular among the
Lebanese, including students on
school excursions.
Anjar’s newly elected municipal council is devising plans to attract more visitors and improve
the economy in the city of 2,500,
almost exclusively from the Armenian community.
“We have plans to revive the International Festivals of Anjar with
high-standard programmes to attract the largest possible audience,”
Anjar Mayor Vartax Khochian said.
The festivals have been postponed for two years due to insecurity because of the conflict in Syria
and the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees who have settled
in random camps across the Bekaa
valley.
“The municipality is still recovering from the losses incurred by the
failure of previous festivals, which
was mainly caused by instability in
the country,” Khochian noted.
In addition to its archaeological site, the modern city of Anjar,
Beiteddine:
July 8th-August 9th
The Beiteddine Art Festival, in
picturesque Beiteddine in the
Chouf mountains, has a variety
of performances, including
opera, concerts, theatre and
art exhibitions. The festival
welcomes more than 50,000
visitors, as well as numerous
star performers. Buika, Seal and
Kadim Al Sahir are to perform
at this year’s festival.
Carthage:
July and August
The Carthage International Festival is one of the most compelling arts and cultural events in
North Africa, drawing a mix of
local and international performers to Tunisia over a period of
several weeks. It takes place at
the Carthage amphitheatre.
Byblos:
September 8th-12th
Farmers walk back home from their fields through Anjar’s historic
Umayyad ruins, dating back to the eighth century, in the Bekaa
Valley, 60kms east of Beirut.
which was designed by French colonialists in the shape of an eagle
with its wings spread, is famous
for its fruit groves and sweet water
ponds where trout are farmed.
Tourist complexes and restaurants spread along the Anjar river,
a tributary of the Litani river, city’s
river are famous for special dishes
blending Lebanese and Armenian
cuisines. Despite the drop in foreign and Arab visitors, the city is
active, especially on weekends, attracting large numbers of people
from across Lebanon.
Many people come to Anjar specifically to dine at the restaurants.
An estimated 5,000-6,000 vehicles
enter the city over the weekend, according to Khochian.
“Once, while flying back to Lebanon, I started chatting with the passenger sitting next to me. When
I told him I am from Anjar, it did
not ring a bell until I mentioned
the name of one of the famous restaurants, he then recognised the
place,” Khochian said.
The new municipal council will
be building on the reputation of the
city’s restaurants to attract visitors,
the mayor said.
“We have been having regular
consultation meetings with the
owners of touristic facilities and
restaurants to check on their needs,
as part of the plan to improve access, including rehabilitation of
roads,” he said. “It is a priority for
the municipality, not only to beautify the city, but also to create job
opportunities for the youth and the
families of Anjar.”
The municipality plans to set up
a special food market to support agriculture.
“In addition to being famous for
its ruins, Anjar is rich with agricultural products, notably organic fruit
and vegetables irrigated with clear,
unpolluted water. It has become a
food shopping centre for the whole
Bekaa region,” Khochian said.
Daniele Khayat is a reporter based
in eastern Lebanon.
The Lebanon Latin Festival
takes place in Edde Sands
with more than 90 artists from
around the world. Dance workshops will be given in Salsa,
Bachata, Kizomba, cha cha cha,
hip-hop, Samba, Lambada,
Oriental, Dabke and AfroCubano. Performances are also
scheduled.
Essaouira:
October 14th-16th
The natural setting for the
TV series Game of Thrones in
Essaouira, Morocco, is the backdrop for the first MOGA Festival
of electronic music and culture.
Festival-goers are invited to
performances, educational
workshops, beach parties, digital video installations and other
events.
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East and North Africa.
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